It isn’t easy to predict what we’re going to be doing in the future. In this article, Richard Sandford from the Government Office for Science sets out the core principles of Horizon Scanning and the techniques civil servants can use to make the future a less uncertain place.
Colin Dingwall, the former Director of the Electoral Registration Transformation Programme, describes the key lessons he and his colleagues learnt delivering this fundamental change to the UK’s Electoral Registration System and what their experience means for other large scale public sector projects.
Research shows that people with mental health conditions are more likely to experience unemployment, poverty and poor physical health throughout their lives. In this article, Thomas Smith, policy advisor in the Department for Work and Pensions, describes the innovative work …
Edward Lockhart-Mummery, Leader of the Smarter Environmental Regulation Review in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), explains how Defra and its organisations are rewriting their guidance to make it simpler, quicker and clearer for users to comply …
From several textbooks worth of legislation to just over 100 pages. Nicolette Sanders, DWP Legal Adviser explains how government lawyers have simplified Universal Credit legislation using agile service development principles.
The Department of Health is leading the development of a $100 million global Dementia Discovery Fund. Siobhan Jones, Deputy Director of the Dementia Fund at the Department Health explains how they plan to use private investment to deliver positive social returns.
How can you ensure the safe operation of nuclear reactors when it is too dangerous to physically check their cores? Nick Warren, Head of Statistical Modelling at the Health & Safety Laboratory, explains how his team have developed the only truly independent and impartial model for estimating the viable life expectancy of UK’s nuclear reactors.
Good data analysis allows organisations to discover useful information about its customers, but is also helping the Civil Service make more informed choices about how it delivers government priorities. Vicky Ranson explains how increasingly hi-tech data analysis in HM Revenue and Customs is helping the department collect record amounts of tax revenue, and shaping the way the organisation will work in the future.
On 24 February 2015 Parliament passed regulations to make the UK the first country in the world in which treatment involving DNA from three people can be used to prevent the transmission of serious mitochondrial disease from mother to child. Alexandra Humphris-Bach from Sciencewise outlines the importance of the public voice in guiding this process.
Public service professions have lagged behind the medical profession in using empirical evidence to guide decision making. David Halpern, National Adviser on What Works & CEO of Behavioural Insights Team, explains how the emergence of ‘What Works Centres’ can change this, and outlines the case for ‘radical incrementalism’.
Recent Comments